Pregame notes: Crosstown Classic, now with a reduced sense of impending doom

Sometimes, when delving into approach angles, hip rotation, scap loads, baseball seems like it is almost needlessly complex.

Other times, the White Sox general manager is getting asked questions about the recently elected pope.

"I don’t have his number yet," said Chris Getz "In due time. His brother might get quicker access than the Pope. Yeah, it’s been exciting obviously to have someone of that significance be a White Sox fan. It was fun and since he’s been announced to become the Pope, the White Sox have tacked on some wins. Perhaps a higher power is on our side."

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Normally this place is full of roster moves and game minutiae, and there's a lot of that to parse.

While Castro brings a nice Triple-A stat line and is the reason for there being a Sugar Land Space Cowboys duffel bag in the White Sox clubhouse, the 30-year-old also has a 104 ERA+ in over 400 career major league appearances. With that experience, Will Venable said he'll slot immediately into the White Sox right-handed leverage relief mix alongside Steven Wilson and Jordan Leasure. The Sox almost had too many opener-quality lefties, and Jared Shuster offered a usable minor league option.

"When I got the news, I was getting ready to go out on the field and stretch," Castro said via interpreter. "But that’s part of the business and you never know where you’re going to end up. I’m just glad to have this opportunity and to be here."

It sounded on Thursday like Vinny Capra was going to get Jacob Amaya's job and sure enough that's the case. With Chase Meidroth banged up in numerous ways, the Sox are looking to spell him at shortstop more often. While Amaya was clearly the best defensive shortstop on the roster, and probably better than Capra in that respect, his usage had come to reflect the Sox not being able to count on getting any offense out of him (.097/.119/.113).

The Sox certainly talk like they're hoping to get more out of Capra's bat, despite similar numbers with the Brewers (.074/.121/.130).

"You look at some of the underlying traits that he has and he’ll get a chance to show what he’s capable of in an environment like this," Getz said. "Walker [McKinven] has some experience with Vinny being that they were in Milwaukee together. He spoke highly of his ability. We just felt like it was a chance to get a player that could be an upgrade."

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Mike Tauchman, Austin Slater and Korey Lee should all be ready to complete their rehab assignments by next week. At around the same time, Getz said the Sox will have to decide whether Andrew Benintendi needs a rehab assignment or has been through enough baseball activities to jump right back in.

Of course, Lee completing his rehab assignment might just be a formality before his final option is used to keep him at Triple-A Charlotte.

"You have Edgar [Quero], that is doing really well, Matty [Thaiss] has done a solid job too," Getz said. "It’s become a strength of our organization, the amount of catchers we have. They are at the upper levels, so in regards to development and playing time, it can get a little bit challenging. But it’s a project that we don’t mind taking on. I know there could be some players along the way who could get a little frustrated, and we are going to stay on top of that and continue to communicate with those players."

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A wave of veteran hitters coming back threatens the balance of Tim Elko and Andrew Vaughn being in a first base/designated hitter rotation.

"He’s a guy that obviously he has power, there were some indicators in this season that there is more consistency in regards to squaring up the baseball," Getz said of calling up Elko. "Vaughner, although he’s been fairly unlucky, he’s come alive a little bit as well. Kind of going back to managing the roster and putting our best foot forward each series, we are going to put our minds together and put together the best roster we can as we take on each series."

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It's Armed Forces Weekend, so everyone is going to be wearing camouflage-colored hats all series.

First pitch: White Sox at Cubs

TV: CHSN, Marquee, MLB Network (Out-of-market)

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, 670 AM The Score (Cubs broadcast), WRTO 1200 AM (Spanish)

Lineups: